Wednesday, 23 March 2016

March at Simple Scrapper #2

I'm back with my second share of the month for Simple Scrapper, this time using a sketch from May 2015 (#248) and the March 2016 Story Starter on the subject of "Hard Work".

As soon as I saw all the prompts around working, entrepreneurship and lessons learnt, I knew I wanted to make a Paragon page. It was a time of incredible hard work, and hours and hours of graft with little in return which was ok because I was young and naive enough to deal with it. I'm not sure I could do that today.

This page is anything but "simple" to be honest but the story I wanted to tell was one of chaos and hectic so I picked out a sketch that was quite busy. And it's set at the end of the 1980s which was a time full of colour, big shapes and designs, and "bigger is better" attitude. My dresses were bright and garish with lots and lots of roses and layers and embellished parts. My workshop was small and crowded and cramped but cosy too. So in addition to the busy sketch, I picked out mis-matched patterns and lots of chaotic colours to layer up and give all that feeling of busy-ness. It looks more chaotic and busy here in the photos than it is in real life but it sums up those days perfectly.

To be honest, almost every item and piece of paper on this page "means" something and there's a lot of symbolism that's not automatically obvious but I see it all - even the little line of sequins down there in the bottom left hand corner are a nod to all the sequins dresses I made at that time.

This quote seemed perfect and is a saying very often used in Germany as well as being true. I was certainly stronger coming out of this time than when I started the business.

To find out more about the many resources and inspiration - including the sketches and story starters I use each month - available to encourage you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment, check out the Simple Scrapper premium membership here.